FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT APPELLATE COURT - PAGE 5

The state Superior Court has upheld a Northampton County Court decision dismissing a suit against a Forks Township bar for lack of evidence. Lorrie A. and Didier David Greenleaf and Mrs. Greenleaf's brother, Glenn Miller, failed to prove that the Friendly Tavern and its owners served alcohol to a visibly intoxicated woman, the appellate court held. The woman, Peggy Harman of Lower Mt. Bethel Township, later was involved in a traffic accident on Route 611 in Lower Mt. Bethel Township.

Pennsylvania's Superior Court has denied an Allentown property owner's request to reargue his case that he was defamed by an article in The Morning Call. William Wagstaff made the request after he lost an appeal before a three-judge panel of the court in March. He also asked the court to reconsider its decision upholding a Lehigh County judge's dismissal of his lawsuit. This week, the full court denied the requests. Wagstaff's lawsuit was filed after an article in 1994 said two bank robbers had used Wagstaff's Auto Repair, 1123 Fenwick St., as their base of operations.

The drug paraphernalia conviction against the former co-owner of the Hobbit Hole store in Richland Township has been thrown out by the state Superior Court, which also granted Kathleen McGroggan a new trial. Bucks County Assistant District Attorney S. Kip Portman said the appellate court ruled that the prosecution improperly raised the issue of the Coopersburg woman's prior drug paraphernalia conviction during her trial last year. The court ruled that information on the 1983 conviction should not have been presented to the jury, Portman said.

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey drivers face fines for texting while driving and prison time when they cause death or injury. Now, a state appellate court has decided it's not just drivers who can wind up in trouble for texting: Message-senders can also be held responsible in civil cases, if they know the recipient is driving and likely to read the text while behind the wheel. In an opinion published this week, the appellate court agreed with a Morris County Superior Court judge's decision to dismiss a claim against a 17-year-old girl who texted 18-year-old Kyle Best before his pickup crossed the center line of a road and hit a husband and wife on their motorcycle.

Richland Township supervisors last night appointed a Pittsburgh-based collections company as the new earned income tax collector for the municipality. Central Tax Bureau of Pennsylvania will serve as tax collector in the municipality for a three-year period, ending in 1988. The company was selected from a field of three, including current tax collector Ethel Bleam, to provide the service at a cost to the township of 2.5 percent of the collections. Bleam, who had been the earned income tax officer since it was first instituted in the township in 1966, currently receives 5 percent of collections.

Daniel Williams, convicted of the rape and murder of an 8-year-old Bethlehem girl, will have a hearing after all on whether he was properly represented at his trial. Northampton County Judge Richard D. Grifo earlier turned down Williams' request for a hearing and the State Superior Court affirmed his decision. But Grifo, in a brief order filed yesterday, said he had reviewed the record and the appellate court's July 6 order. The Superior Court opinion did not specifically deal with Williams' charge that his counsel at his 1974 trial was ineffective, Judge Grifo said.

Retired Bucks County Judge George T. Kelton has been selected as a senior judge on the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court. Kelton, a 71-year-old Republican from Lower Makefield Township, stepped down from the Common Pleas Court in Bucks County a year ago when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. Donald Darlington, executive administrator of the Commonwealth Court, said Kelton was enlisted for senior judge status because of the heavy caseload faced...

The state Superior Court recently upheld a life sentence for Sherri Robinson for second-degree murder but ordered that she be resentenced for a conspiracy conviction. Robinson and her brother, Henry, were charged in the fatal shooting of F. Perry Minich in 1981. The shooting occurred during a botched robbery of the jewelry store that Mrs. Minich and her husband, Clyde, operated at 11 N. 6th St., Allentown. A three-judge panel ruled that because Sherri Robinson was convicted of felony-murder - a murder committed during a felony, the robbery Lehigh County Judge Maxwell E. Davison had sentenced her to life imprisonment for the murder conviction and a consecutive 10- to 20-year term for robbery and conspiracy.

Local agencies that want to hold private meetings to discuss legal matters may have to provide more details to the public if Commonwealth Court upholds a ruling by a Berks County judge. President Judge Forrest G. Schaeffer Jr. recently ordered Reading City Council to give more information to the public about existing and potential litigation and complaints before it can hold an executive session. The ruling came after the Reading Eagle Co., publisher of the Reading Eagle and the Reading Times, took council to court, alleging that members violated the state Sunshine Act when they closed an April meeting to the public.

A state appellate court yesterday upheld all but one element of a lower court decision that allows the construction of a Washington Township, Northampton County, flea market, first approved more than 3-1/2 years ago. The township zoning board in March 1991 granted a special exception to Nicholas R. Sabatine Jr. and his wife Concetta to build a flea market on 7 acres adjacent to the former Heather Manufacturing building. A special exception from zoners is needed to build the flea market on the land, which is in the township's rural center district.